The Trumpf Inauguration Committee Finds The Perfect Inauguration Entertainment At Last!

2016 In Review: America Off The Rails, Part 3



by Noah

There have been a lot of stories lately about the difficulties Herr Trumpf's troops have had finding people who want to perform at his inauguration. His entertainment committee can't even find a local or regional high school marching band that's willing to participate. Such bands always participate; not this time. The stench is strong with this one.

Naturally, the media points out that many music artists, being lefties, aren't about to avail themselves of the dubious opportunity and the soiling exposure it would provide for their careers; especially since being associated with a horrific stew of 1-percenters, mindless hypnotized fanatics, Russian mobsters, Atlantic City mobsters, Hate Radio and FOX "News" types, and a cross-section of every white-supremacy group known to man isn't a normally well-adjusted persons' idea of a great night out.

Even worse, imagine if you were performing onstage and looked out in the crowd and saw the likes of "Drooling Rudy" Giuliani, "Dr. Strangelove" Cheney, or Kellyanne "Cruella De Vil" Conway looking back at you. That would be enough to make anyone change careers. You'd never have another night of nightmare-free sleep again.



There's another obvious reason a sane person won't take the job, and that is Herr Trumpf's reputation, well-justified or not, for not paying those he hires. Hell, the word in New York is that he's known for making a lot of money by getting people to work for a small percentage of the contracted or agreed amount under threat of lawsuit. The joke around New York is that he pays for his bankruptcy attorneys on the backs of those he stiffs. It's hard to fight back when he can throw more lawyers at you. Even the young troupe of singing-and-dancing girls USA Freedom Kids, who were hired to perform at a Trumpf campaign rally, had to sue his campaign to get their stipend for travel expenses.

Given Herr Trumpf's penchant for pathological lying, we should soon be seeing tweets that George Michael was all set to come across the pond and do a show. Can't you just see the tweet:

Yes. Sad. And righteous! Trumpie feels he is entitled to the attention of and glorification by what he calls A-list celebrities. His idea of an inauguration is a bunch of jesters and clowns groveling before him, but it's just not happening. He even got the producers of the Radio City Rockettes to speak for their troupe and commit them to perform, almost. Reportedly, even their union had been leaned on and was about to force participation. It seems that once word of the possibility got out, a large number of the Rockettes spoke up for themselves and said "Hell, NO!"

Quite an Internet reaction, too! One Rockette, Phoebe Pearl, went public, posting a protest "Not My President" Instagram, taking to the Internet eloquently saying:

I usually don't use social media to make a political stand but I feel overwhelmed with emotion. Finding out that it has been decided for us that Rockettes will be performing at the Presidential inauguration makes me feel embarrassed and disappointed. The women I work with are intelligent and are full of love, and the decision of performing for a man that stands for everything we're against is appalling. I am speaking for just myself but please know that after we found out this news, we have been performing with tears in our eyes and heavy hearts.
#notmypresident

Phoebe Pearl may not realize it yet, but she has beautifully said what millions of Americans and hundreds of millions if not billions of citizens from around the world are thinking. She has articulated it magnificently. Former Rockettes have also spoken up, and it now looks like an awful, soul-crushing evening for them has been avoided. There will be no newly sworn-in president barging in on the Rockettes as they shower and change in their dressing room; no worrying about having their privates grabbed by Lord Tiny Hands either.



As of this writing, the Morman Tabernacle Choir and has-been white rapper Kid Rock, an ardent trumpie, are slated to perform. The republican crowd may not like rap music, but I'm sure all will be OK once they see that he's white and not, well, you know…  Really, if they're gonna have Kid Rock, they might as well have Pat Boone singing a medley of Little Richard and Fats Domino hits.

Jackie Evancho will also be there. Ms. Evancho is a mega-selling16-year-old former runner-up of the America's Got Talent TV show. (To be fair, she should have been declared the winner). But if you really want to see something other than a celebration of evil, cluelessness, hate, and vulgarity, Robert Reich has proposed a star-filled Anti-Trumpf Freedom United Concert that will be a better ticket, if the promoters can pull it off.

The proposed concert would run on TV the same time as the Trumpf festivities, an obvious threat to ratings for Trumpie, something that will no doubt inspire a tweet tornado from President Man Child replete with lies about superior ratings and the "librul" performers being "over-rated" and "sad," etc. The concert would be a real double whammy for republicans. Not only would it be an inaugural boycott concert featuring real A-listers; but the proceeds will benefit charities. As Herr Trumpf would say, sad.

Let's not forget that Trumpf can also pull from the vast performance-talent cesspool of his own republican party. Who can forget former George W. Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft's stirring rendition of "When Eagles Soar" and Karl Rove's rap stylings? Watch this if you're still not convinced that we need to build a lot more insane asylums.



Perhaps Herr Trumpf can call on his master, Vladimir Putin, to force some Russian dancers and singers to perform. You can bet that if Trumpf has heard of the Russian all-girl rock band Pussy Riot he's already asked, not realizing that the band is seriously persona non grata in their homeland, at least as far as Putin's government is concerned. Last I knew, the band is in jail anyway.

Failing that, maybe the southern states can provide some carnival sideshow entertainers --you know, geeks biting the heads off of chickens, snakewomen, Louie Gohmert, bearded ladies, two-headed jugglers, and magic-elixir-extolling patent-medicine salesmen offering a republican alternative to Obamacare. It's all going to be a circus anyway, why not go all the way?





HUFFPOST COMEDY WRITER/EDITOR ANDY McDONALD SAYS:
"Guy Creates Trump Inaugural Flyer
We Should All Start Passing Out"

Josh Greenberg

2016 IN REVIEW: AMERICA OFF THE RAILS

Here it is, Noah's completed Year in Review for 2016:

Part 1, "Profiles in Cowardice: The Electoral College" (12/23/2016)
Part 2, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #1: Newt Gingrich" (12/27/2016)
Part 3, "The Trumpf Inauguration Committee Finds The Perfect Inauguration Entertainment At Last!" (12/29/2016)
Part 4, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #2: R-R-Reince Priebus" (1/2/2017)
Part 5, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (1)" (1/4/2017)
Part 6, "Comrade Trump: The World’s Worst Cabinet Maker, Believe Me -- Meet The New Russian Oligarchs! (2)" (1/5/2017)
Part 7, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #3: Governors' Edition" (1/9/2017)
Part 8, "Trump -- The Art And Acts Of The Emboldened: The Rise In Hate Crimes Under The Influence Of Comrade T" (1/10/2017)
Part 9, "Republican Of The Year Nominee #4: It's A Sad Thing When Cousins Marry Edition" (1/11/2017)
Part 10, "Republican Person Of The Year Nominee #5 -- And Winner!" (1/12/2017)
Part 11, "Comrade Trump: Inauguration Entertainment Update!" (1/15/2017)
Part 12, "A DWT Exclusive: We Have The First Draft Of Comrade Trump's Inauguration Speech!" (1/16/2017)

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OMG, I have a chance to win tix to the Inaugural Ball with what's-their-names!

No, nothing will happen if you try to click on the above button. But here's where the button would take you.

by Ken

You know that post title -- I'm just kidding there. My first response is like with all those breathless e-mail announcements that I have a chance to win some presumed treasure: No, I don't. More than that, though, I don't have any interest in going to the Inaugural Ball. Besides, I'm going to be busy then. (When was it again? Oh, of course, Inauguration Day -- January 21. No, I'm going to be busy then. Doing what exactly, I forget, but definitely busy. I'm thinking maybe I have to feed the llamas.)

These inaugural blahs aren't at all what I was feeling the last time we had a presidential Inauguration Day. I've gotten over it. Still, don't let me stop you from exercising your chance to win tickets. You probably got this e-mail, right?

Friend,

Imagine going to the Inaugural Ball next Monday with President Obama and Michelle. That'd be pretty great, right?

But what if you got to meet the new Democratic senators too? Even better!

Well today is your chance to make it happen. Enter the DSCC's Grand Inaugural Contest and you and a guest could win:

• Tickets to the Inaugural Ball with President and Michelle Obama
• Passes to a private reception with all the new Democratic senators
• Airfare and hotel accommodations in Washington, D.C.

Democrats won the White House and Senate because of grassroots supporters like you. And that's why you deserve to celebrate the Inauguration with them!

So what are you waiting for? The contest ends Sunday at midnight -- enter now for your chance to win!

Thank you,

Sen. Michael Bennet
Chair, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

[I've left out the links in the e-mail; the one in the caption up atop this post will have to suffice. There's a limit to how much promotion we're here to do for Senator Bennet. -- Ed.]

If you do win the tickets, though, and you get a moment with what's-his-name, assuming his recent appointments are still pending, you can tell him what you think about this Brennan guy, Dr. Death Drone, and some of the other outstanding folks he's been stocking his second-term administration with.

And by the way, if you run into your "friend" Senator Bennet, after you thank him for the tickets you might ask if Sen. Patty Murray is around so you can thank her for the fine job she did running the DSCC in the last cycle. And ask him if he's really going to do as lousy a job at the DSCC as people are saying. (See Howie's recent post "Watch Conservative Michael Bennet Crap All Over Patty Murray's Outstanding Record At The DSCC.")

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The Whole World Celebrates The Beginning Of Obama's Presidency

I spent most of December in Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world. When I first arrived in the capital, Bamako, the only place most Americans would recognize as even remotely part of our world, I was stunned to see American flag decals and Obama stickers everywhere. I mean everywhere. I never saw anything like it. Every taxi, every truck, every bus had some kind of a pro-America or pro-Obama sign. Even more shocking was that when I left Bamako and visited remote parts of the country-- including villages with no electricity and far from roads-- I still found American flags and Obama-Biden bumperstickers!

Across Africa people are accutely aware that it is an African-American who is becoming president of this country today. And I know it is difficult for people who don't travel outside the country to understand this, but for many, if not most, people across the world, the president of the United States really is looked at as the leader of the whole world. In the last 7 years people have been very, very disappointed. And now the world is ready to be inspired by America again. Today's NY Times ran a piece datelined Paris about how the rest of the world looks at the inauguration.

Around the globe, from Hong Kong to London, Barack Obama’s inauguration became a day for millions to fete an event they refused to see as reserved for Americans and insisted was one that touched lives far beyond the United States.

The focus for Americans may well have been defined by the election of the first black president, by the end of the Bush Administration, by the promise of renewal or by the hope for change. But, in specific terms, many outsiders saw the transition as a signal for their own new era, a starting gun for a new manner of international behavior.

...In Paris, a celebration at the ornate Hôtel de Ville on the banks of the River Seine was set to be followed by less formal merriment around the city. The American Library in Paris offered a screening and a debate. British cities including Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds and London, scheduled big-screen viewings of the inauguration.

...In Tottenham, a multiethnic neighborhood of north London, Juliet Alexander, the organizer of an inauguration celebration in an arts center, said the significance of the American election lay in the belief that “he is not just a black president, he is a politically educated man who has touched the imaginations of people all around the world.”

“He represents a movement to people-- and we are happy to celebrate that,” she said in a statement.

Many of the events in Paris and London were organized by groups representing American Democrats living abroad, but, like Mr. Obama’s election campaign, they drew in many others who saw the change of leadership in Washington as bearing directly on their own lives and hopes.

As President Shimon Peres of Israel put it, “Today is a great day not only for the United States of America, but for the entire world.”

“I pray here in Jerusalem that Barack Obama will be a great president of the United States. If he will be a great president of the United States, he will serve all humankind, all nations and all persons,” he said.

Indeed, Israeli forces were pulling out of Gaza on Tuesday, anxious to be out after their war on Hamas by the time the inauguration ceremonies began in Washington.

The political significance was not lost on German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said she hoped the Obama era would be built on a broad international agreement that “no single country can solve the problems of the world,” a hope built in part on the perceived unilateralism and bellicosity of the Bush years from 2000 to 2008.

It's estimated that more people in the U.S., and more people around the world, are watching Obama's inauguration than have ever watched anything on TV... ever! If you've been watching TV-- other than Fox-- you know the whole country has been galvanized by Obama in a way that no one has united the country since FDR first came to power in the midst of the last Great Depression. There is a great sense of history today, unlike anything I can remember. Earlier, we looked at some of the skunks at the party in the media and in the GOP. Even today, Texas reactionary and extremist John Cornyn, was threatening to place a hold on the confirmation of Hillary Clinton as Obama's Secretary of State. I wish President Obama all the best in terms of his post-partisan idealism-- all the best and a good defense against an Inside the Beltway power system where the good will is unlikely to last beyond Friday.


UPDATE: Gingrich Isn't Buying Into Any Post-Partisanship, No Way

When Newt Gingrich was driven from the speakership and Congress in disgrace he went out as one of the most disliked and divisive figures ever. Looks like nothing has changed at all. He's urging his fellow right-wingers to fight President Obama's from Day One. Knowing it isn't a battle they can win, Gingrich is urging rightist senators to make a stink about the nomination of Timothy Geithner.

Some leading Senate Republicans publicly have avoided confrontation of the nomination with the economy in dire straights.

"Now is not the time to think in small political terms," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said recently. "I don't see any desire by the Republican Party to play 'gotcha' on this."
Mr. Graham said he thinks Mr. Geithner is "the right guy" for the job.

But Mr. Gingrich insists that it "would be wrong for someone who did not pay taxes to become secretary of the Treasury in charge of getting taxes from the rest of us. It would be doubly wrong to appoint him in an administration which intends to raise taxes on the rest of us."

I thought not paying taxes was a Republican ideal. Perhaps Mr. Gingrich should make a statement about the $100 billion that is lost annually to the U.S. Treasury by because Republican-sponsored loopholes allow big corporations to use off shore tax havens with no fears of retributions.

Doesn't this sound like a job for Brownie?

If there's anything FEMA knows how to do, surely
it's taking care of emergency housing needs.

With the District of Columbia girding for the inauguration onslaught, our pal Al Kamen reports in an "In the Loop" item called "Brownie, We Hardly Knew Ye" that "the Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the case, ready to make sure everything works out," except for one small hitch:

In preparing for the worst -- an attack on millions of Obama's guests on Jan. 20 -- FEMA seems to have forgotten to plan for its own.

FEMA managers apparently will require 50 to 60 workers on Inauguration Day to staff the National Response Coordination Center, just steps from the Mall. But we're told the brains behind the operation have not given employees any clues as to plans for feeding, sheltering and transporting them amid the chaos that will consume downtown Washington.

"There are no plans for feeding people, sheltering people -- anything," said Leo Bosner, head of FEMA's employees union. "Given the poor planning we've seen out of our bosses the last couple of years, we're kind of worried."

FEMA spokeswoman Debbie Wing said it is not 100 percent certain that the agency will staff the downtown facility, and FEMA is considering staffing response coordinators at an alternative facility in the suburbs. Nonetheless, Wing said, managers will ensure that employees have what they need.

"We have made contingency plans for food and meals for the employees to be catered and also made accommodations for facilities, showers and cots and blankets," Wing said.

So everyone just calm down. FEMA will naturally share those plans with its employees. There's still more than a month to go.

Say, I'll bet the current FEMA management could lay its hands on a supply of trailers -- by February or March.


SPEAKING OF FEMA, AL ALSO REPORTS . . .

. . . that much-admired Clinton-era FEMA Director James Lee Witt "has taken himself out of the running -- apparently for business and personal reasons."

Witt is said to be backing Mark Merritt, an ex-FEMA official who now works for Witt in their consulting firm. Former congressman Nick Lampson (D-Tex.), who won -- and then lost -- the House seat that former majority leader Tom DeLay once held, had been looking at the FEMA slot, we were told, but is now drifting toward some other options.

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It seems safe to say that President-elect Obama doesn't give a damn what we think of the choice of Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation

"Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn't need or deserve this position of honor. There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.''

-- Kathryn Kolbert, president of People for the American Way, on the announcement that Pastor Rick Warren will give the inaugural invocation

by Ken

By now I imagine everyone has heard the news. Certainly from the time it oozed out this afternoon, it has spread like wildfire over the blogosphere, and in particular over the liberal blogosphere. Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddlebrook megachurch will give the invocation at the presidential inauguration.

There's plenty of time, and plenty of reason, for fulminating, but first I think it's important to keep in mind that the announcement of the selection of the celebrated right-wing evangelical power broker and die-hard homophobe was bracketed with the announcement that the benediction will be given by the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the hugely admired civil rights leader. (There will also be performances by Aretha Franklin, violinist Itzhak Perlman, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, among others.)

Here is Michael Paulson's post from early this evening on the Boston Globe website:

EVANGELICALISM, POLITICS
Obama taps evangelical for inauguration

Posted by Michael Paulson

President-elect Barack Obama (right) has tapped Rick Warren (left), the most prominent evangelical preacher of the post-Billy Graham generation, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. The decision was announced today by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Warren pastors the Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Orange County, California, but he is best know as the author of the best-selling "Purpose Driven Life" and its many spinoffs. And Warren has been a forceful advocate for reordering evangelical priorities -- he does not support abortion or same-sex marriage, but his public priority has been combatting AIDS in Africa, and he has criticized the politicization of evangelical Protestantism.

Warren has hosted Obama several times; in 2006, he invited Obama to speak at his church on World AIDS Day (an invitation that drew some criticism of Warren from the right); in August of this year Obama and the GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, were interviewed on live television by Warren in an election forum; and earlier this month, on World AIDS Day, Obama offered taped remarks praising President Bush's work on AIDS, which was being recognized by Warren at Saddleback.

The choice is winning praise by anti-abortion groups that have been concerned about the Obama administration. The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody blogs, "Pro-life pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration. It makes a whole lot of sense. Even though Warren and Obama disagree on the life issue, they do see eye to eye on many social justice issues. This move is also classic Obama because it is a signal to religious conservatives that he’s willing to bring in both sides to the faith discussion in this country. Obama has never shied away from that."

But advocates for abortion rights and same-sex marriage are furious. People For the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert called the choice "a grave disappointment,'' citing Warren's opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion, and writing, "Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn't need or deserve this position of honor. There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.'' And blogger Andrew Sullivan, under the headline "Ugh" wrote: "Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now. He won't be as bad as the Clintons (who, among leading Democrats, could?), but pandering to Christianists at his inauguration is a depressing omen."

(Photo taken at Saddeback Aug. 16 by Mark Avery/Reuters.)

There was apparently some effort to spin the news by fobbing it off on the inauguration committee, chaired by Senator Feinstein. But that's so silly as to be insulting. Does anyone believe that the committee would do anything, anything at all, against the wishes of the president-elect? I'll go further: Does anyone believe that any decision by the committee has been or will be made without clearance from the president-elect's people? Not a chance.

I'm going to assume that the objections to Pastor Rick are too obvious, and audible around us, to be worth enumerating here. If his selection for the invocation was not intended as a kick in the teeth for those who believe in women's reproductive choice and those who believe in equal rights for LGBT Americans, that was accomplished nevertheless.

I don't think the thinking here is mysterious. It's not just a matter of "inclusiveness." It's surely an attempt to bring more people into President Obama's planned Really Big Tent -- to recruit and perhaps even coopt people who aren't already part of the Obama coalition.

Since the president-elect truly doesn't seem to care what progressives think, I guess all we can do -- beyond making our share of nasty noise -- is to hope that he's right about the possibility of bringing people with such contrasting views together to find shared solutions. Me? I'm more persuaded by the argument Digby made for us the other day about Republicans. (I think she would agree that it's even more true of the Christian Right.)

[Republicans] really do believe that bipartisanship is date rape -- they have done for the past 30 years. And there aren't any Republican political professionals who didn't come up in that school. To them, this is what politics are all about. Since they have paid no price for this beyond a fairly even ebb and flow of electoral politics there's been no reassessment of their methods. Dems don't play the blame game. Republicans do.

Dealing with a ruthless obstructionist opposition party that always operates in bad faith and never misses an opportunity to weaken the president was always going to be part of Obama's challenge. (And it doesn't matter if the public hates it -- the whole point is to wear them down until it's just too exhausting to resist.)

Clearly, President-elect Obama believes otherwise. I hope he's right. I hope we aren't looking at an administration whose policies are going to be tailored to acceptability by Pastor Rick.

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